I will live as a follower of Christ who holds to the faithful Word while passing on the Word to the faithful. That's the point behind InkLink: A place to say it and a place to share it. Like a link in a chain that not only contains but also connects, I pray my heart's "ink" will spill out in a way that links us to the truth as well as to tomorrow.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

A Profile of an Actually Spiritual Family (Intro)

Okay, so I finished teaching last week from Proverbs 2 (and a few other corollary passages) about pursuing God with everything. No idols. No competition. Only God. I encouraged people to repent of idolatry, mentioning that the way we find out what gets the most glory in our life (i.e., what we worship) is by asking ourselves, “What do I sacrifice for?” (Romans 11:36-12:2).

I should have seen it coming -- The next morning, I got an email from a really good dad worried that since he “sacrifices” so much for his family, is he putting them ahead of God? Yikes! I didn’t intend to pull good moms and dads away from their greatest and most important earthly role – parenting! So I got to thinking about some of his questions, and here’s what I wrote to him -- in 3 parts I’m calling “A Profile of an Actually Spiritual Family (as opposed to the theoretically spiritual family you only hear about in sermon illustrations that make you fell guilty). Maybe it’ll help some other parents with small children, busy families, and hard-working spouses who falsely feel sometimes that they just don’t “do enough” for Jesus because they’re consistently giving to and sacrificing for their kids/families. (We’ll throw that thought in the same place we threw the one that said real Christians don’t dance – in the rubbish pile, mate!)

Hope you enjoy my “actually spiritual family” ramblings...one a day for the next trio of 24-hour periods.

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About Me

Grew up in Chattanooga, TN. Graduated from TTU. Married Julie (Smith). We have four children. Along the way I was a youth pastor in GA and then IA, where I also founded the non-profit organization Youth Leader Connection (YLC). Then planted First Family Church in IA. Still serving there as lead pastor and enjoying it immensely.